America at 250: Is the Experiment Failing?

David discusses how he hopes Americans can find a future where we rediscover how much there is to be proud of in the American experience and offers a comparison to another turbulent time in American history: the Compromise of 1850.Then, David is joined by The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss the impending celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and whether the ideas in that document still ring true in the Trump era.Finally, David ends the episode with a discussion of City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism by Abram Van Engen and the origins of the phrase “a shining city on a hill.”The following is a transcript of the episode:David Frum: Hello, and welcome to a special star-spangled edition of The David Frum Show. I’m David Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic. My guest this week will be Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic. We will be discussing the American idea and how it stands on this 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The book under discussion this week will also have a patriotic theme. That book is City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism by Abram Van Engen. But before either the dialogue with Jeffrey Goldberg or the book discussion, some opening thoughts on this memorable and momentous anniversary.The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence has been shaping up as, well, frankly, somewhere between an embarrassment and a fiasco. It’s marked by a military defeat in the Middle East: President Trump’s lost war against Iran. And at home, it’s been made ridiculous by the algae in the Reflecting Pool before the Lincoln Memorial, by the mixed martial arts fight on the White House lawn, by the ripping down of the East